Mikeespinho's Year-End of 2018

2018 had been a tough year in music. During this year I definitely had struggling times to find new music. So it is no secret that the number of new songs I debuted isn’t as high as in the past year. Sure I cracked the 600 mark, but charting 604 songs in a year is the lowest output I had so far. The upwards trend is stopped after charting 666 songs back in 2017. 23 songs topped my chart. It all started with “Beautiful trauma” by Pink who topped my chart with this song in 2017 and 2018 and ended with “Sorry for writing all the songs about you” by Clara Mae. While Pink is a core artist on my chart, Clara Mae is a newcomer. With Paul McCartney and Kylie Minogue two veteran artists got their first #1’s one my chart. Both came from nowhere. Especially Paul McCartney who had his first #1 with his chart debut “Fuh you”. The longest run at the top of my chart had “Stop me from falling” by Kylie Minogue. This song topped my chart for six weeks although it reached its first week at the top in its 9th week on chart. So this song is definitely a candidate for my #1 song of the year. But there are other songs to which could do very well. “Dancing” also by Kylie Minogue, “Zusammen” (“Together”) by Die Fantastischen Vier feat. Clueso, “Thru these tears” by LANY and “You” by Matilda topped my chart for four weeks. These songs have a good chance to reach my year-end #1 too. Maybe there is a chance for an outsider. At the end of my review we all will know more.

This short summery of songs which could reach my year-end #1 leads us to my usual national ranking. Since 2011 the most artists are from the USA and 2018 isn’t in the position to change this thing. I charted 478 artists (510 in 2017) from 41 countries. Bülow represents the artists where I didn’t found out where they are from. Without further ado here is my national ranking.

National ranking 2018:

1. (1.) USA
2. (3.) England
3. (2.) Germany
4. (6.) Australia
5. (-) Sweden
6. (5.) Austria

Since years Germany and England are fighting for the runner’s up spot. Once more a change occured and so Germany dropped to #3. Interesting is that Sweden found its way into my Top 6. They profited from the Canadian drop out. It hadn’t been their year. But hey Avril Lavigne topped my chart with “Head above water”, so why shouldn’t they have a comeback next year?

Back in May 2017 I started to scrobble my music. I had my last.fm account since 2010, but back then I didn’t really know who to scrobble so I forgot about it. Back in May 2017 I checked out all my different passwords and so I “found out” that I have a last.fm account. I logged in and tried again. The first song I scrobbled had been “Malibu” by Miley Cyrus. Since that I scrobbled more than 38.000 times. It is absolutely interesting to see which song I scrobbled most in a particular year and how my listening habits changed since last year in May. I really love it and I won’t stop it. To make it short this year’s review will be completed with information to my top played songs and artists.

This leads me to my review of my favourite artists of the year. I’m sure you all remember that Anouk won the title for the first time in history. But there is sad news for her too. This year she didn’t even reached my Top 10 artists of the year although she reached #8 among my most played artists in 2018 without releasing any new songs in English. Sure she released an album in her mother language, but I failed to get into this one. In total Anouk got 452 plays. Not bad, but I’m sure that she could do better. It is also interesting to see that Kylie Minogue got 442 plays with four or five songs. In the end she reached #9 among my most played artists. So let’s have a closer look over my Top 10 artists of 2018.

TY	LY		Artist	Info
10.	(3.)		Cold War Kids	They had a nearly perfect year in 2017 with reaching my Top 3. This year they had only smaller hits from their 2017 album “LA Devine”. My favourite song by them in 2018 is their single “Ordinary idols” which peaked at #4. They are #11 among my most played artists in 2018.
9.	(---)		Pink	US superstar Pink returns at #9 and at #7 among my most played artists in 2018. “Beautiful trauma” is surely a reason why she reached my Top 10, but she had also smaller hits for much. Such as “Whatever you want”, “Where we go” or “Barbies”.
8.	(---)		Kylie Minogue	Kylie Minogue is an artist who doesn’t need a lot of songs for reaching this part of my review. She topped my chart with two songs (“Stop me from falling” and “Dancing”) and charted with only a handful more songs. But her chart topping songs helped are a lot. For me her try in country disco/pop worked very well and I hope that she will released such good songs in the future too.
7.	(2.)		Tagtraeumer	Last year Austrian band Tagtraeumer re-entered my Top 10 after I saw them live and their release of the bands 2nd album. This year they continued with songs from this album and although they had only one #1 with “Pfeile” (“Arrows”) they are a big factor on my chart. They are #6 among my most played artists.
6.	(re)		Taylor Swift	Time passes. Back in September 2017 Taylor Swift released “Look what you made me do” and her latest album “Reputation”. She failed to reach my Top 10 in 2017, but this year she returned very strong. “I did something bad” had been her only #1 in 2018, but it definitely helped her to get this spot. She is #5 among my most played artists.
5.	(---)		Norma Jean Martine	#10 among my top played artists and #5 in the year-end ranking is not bad for newcomer Norma Jean Martine. Back in 2016 she released her debut album and since 2017 she escorts my year musically. Her biggest hit in 2018 had been “Angels on my shoulders” from her debut album and “So high” as featured act on the Aslove dance song.
4.	(re)		Emma	Always when I’m speaking and writing about music in Italian I’m sure that you’ll know that I’m talking about Emma. Sure this year she got concurrence with Annalisa, but in end she returned at #4 and at #3 among my most played artists. “Mi parli piano” (“Talk to me slowly”) reached #1 and is surely a candidate for a big spot in my year-end review. She also topped my chart with “Effetto domino” (“Domino effect”) which battels with “Mi parli piano” for her biggest hit in 2018.
3.	(8.)		Kelly Clarkson	Climbing up five spots is Kelly Clarkson. She is my 2nd most played artist of the year and got this spot among my Top 3 with hits like “I don’t think about you” or “Heat”. Neither of this song reached my #1, but she placed more than handful songs within my year-end Top 100.
2.	(4.)		Luke Sital-Singh	Last year Luke Sital-Singh debuted at #4. This year he climbed up two spots and ended in the runner’s up spot. This is definitely more than most of the male artists will every reach on my chart. He finished at #4 at among my most played artists. Among my favourite songs in 2018 are his #1’s “Still” and “Killing me”.
1.	(5.)		Kate Voegele	Sadly I missed her Vienna concert, because I broke my ankle. So I had to listen to her songs a little bit more to compensate. She finished not only at #1 in this list she also finished at #1 among my most played artists with more than 700 plays. “Shoot this arrow” and “Not the only one” topped my chart while “Bad bad drug” peaked at #2. Because of its long activity “Bad bad drug” is also in a position to attack my year-end #1.